BIBLICAL CONCORDANCES. — Collections, arranged in alphabetical order, of the various words or ideas of the Bible. The individual words or ideas are given in their immediate context, with an indication of the book, chapter, and verse in which they occur. The former are called “verbal” c., the latter “real” c. Verbal c. are a valuable means of finding the precise citation of a thought or episode remembered only vaguely. Real c. place before the reader, in an organic and complete form, all the fundamental or particularly important ideas of the Bible.
The first verbal c. arose in the 13th century on the text of the Latin Vulgate. Ugo da S. Caro (ca. 1230) is regarded as their first creator. But the c. of Ugo di S. Vittore (d. 1263) also appeared at approximately the same time. The former, subsequently revised, was printed in 1475 at Strasbourg, whereas the latter appeared only in 1606 at Antwerp, through BREUGHEL (v.). Among the other c., mention should be made of that of Gaspare de Zamora (Rome 1627), those of the Benedictines of Wessobrun (Augsburg 1751), of F. P. Dutrion (Paris 1838), of H. de Raas, E. de Lachaud, and J. Flandrin (Paris–Lyon 1852), continually reprinted to the present day, of G. Tonini (Prato 1861), of M. Bechis (Turin 1887–88), of V. Cornart (Regensburg 1897), and of E. Peultier, L. Etienne, and L. Gantois (Paris 1897; reprinted in 1939).
Among the Hebrew c., mention should be made of that of Isacco Nathan (1437–45), first printed at Venice in 1523; that of the Capuchin Mario de Calassio (Rome 1621); that of the Protestant G. Bustorf the Elder (Basel 1632); and that of the Jew S. Mandelkern (Leipzig 1896–1900; abridged edition, ibid. 1900).
Among the Greek c. for the Old Testament, that of the Anglicans E. Hatch and H. A. Redpath is excellent (Oxford 1892–97; supplement 1900–1906). For the New Testament, the handy one by O. Smoller (Gütersloh 1869; 7th ed. by A. Smoller, Stuttgart 1938) is excellent, while those of C. H. Bruder (Leipzig 1842) and W. F. Moulton–A. S. Geden (Edinburgh 1897) are more complete.
There are also c. in modern languages, especially English, German, French, and Swedish, generally works by Protestants.
The first compiler of real c. was s. Antonio di Padova, whose work was not printed until 1624, with exclusively rhetorical aims. The Thesaurus biblicus of Ph. P. Merz (Augsburg 1733), frequently reissued, is still in use. More scientific in purpose are the c. of G. F. Allot (Antwerp 1577), of A. Calmet (Paris 1722), of G. Vespasiano (Venice 1858), and the more modern dictionaries of F. - G. Vigouroux (v.), of M. Hagen (v.), and of E. Kalt (Paderborn 1931). Finally, the various biblical encyclopedias should be mentioned.